Past Halloweens, I've posted about various costume choices: the witch, the pirate, the wolf.
This year, it occurred to me to ponder, Why NOT the prince? That is, why are prince costumes less common?
Lots of princesses, from (yes, yes, yes) Elsa to fairy queens and such. I costumed as a fairy queen when I was younger (picture to the left).
However, unlike with Princess Leia, I don't remember wanting to play the fairy queen. It was an available costume (yes, it is likely the same dress).
I did want to be Princess Leia, and I suggest that princesses show up for the same reason as Han Solo and Buzz Lightyear: they go on adventures, they build ice castles, they do things.
They wear great clothes, sure! But they wear them while performing, rather like all the female protagonists on television who run around in heels (in the case of Nana Visitor, the heels were likely so she would at least be on the same screen with all her 6-feet co-stars).
One rarely sees "Prince Charming" costumes, precisely because princes in many tales seem to do little more than mope and step on the stage at the appropriate moment. It would be fun to see a bunch of trick-or-treaters show up wearing "kingly accountant costumes" or "princely diplomatic costumes" but one would have to be in on the joke--as when Niles and Frasier bemoan their costumes as youngsters: first, as the Bay of Pigs and then as Swine Lake. Nobody laughed. (Okay, I would have.)
I suspect that most prince costumes just look like military costumes--and the military version is far more recognizable.
As is the musician's version...
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| Totally different Prince. |
